Make Marijuana Legal For Medical Purposes: Help Put Marijuana Reschedule Petition Before President Obama

by Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive DirectorOctober 4, 2011

In 1972 NORML filed the first major lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to change the legal status of cannabis from schedule I to schedule II. Would this make cannabis legal for an adult to purchase and use like alcohol and tobacco products?

No.

All the organization was seeking was an acknowledgement that cannabis had been badly mis-scheduled as a dangerous and highly addictive drug with no accepted medical value. The organization argued in one of the longest (and strangest) legal cases in US history, NORML vs. DEA (1972-1994), that cannabis is a safe, non-toxic herbal medicine that should be within the ambit of choices for a physician to recommend to a sick, dying or sense-threatened medical patient.

Please review and sign a new petition asking President Obama to once and for all listen to the many numerous DEA administrative law judges that have previously ruled in the reformers’ favor and all of the clear science published that cannabis is in fact a medicinal product of great worth, providing maximum safety with minimal unwanted side effects and at relatively little cost for the consumer.

“Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality…Simply stated, researchers have been unable to give animals enough marijuana to induce death…In practical terms, marijuana cannot induce a lethal response as a result of drug-related toxicity…In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume…Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.” – DEA administrative law judge, Francis Young, NORML vs. DEA (1988)

About 3,000 more signatures are needed by October 23 to meet the necessary threshold. I’ve been told that the White House may raise the threshold soon to qualify petitions for Presidential review from 5,000 to 25,000. Undeterred-in-the-slightest, I’m totally confident that the NORML community will generate in excess of 25,000 signatures in support for this important and long-suffering cannabis re-scheduling for medical purposes.

WASHINGTON–(ENEWSPF)–May 23 – A Coalition of advocacy groups and patients filed suit in the DC Circuit Court today to compel the Obama administration to answer a 9-year-old petition to reclassify medical marijuana. The Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC) has never received an answer to its 2002 petition, despite a formal recommendation in 2006 from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the final arbiter in the rescheduling process. As recently as July 2010, the DEA issued a 54-page “Position on Marijuana,” but failed to even mention the pending CRC petition. Plaintiffs in the case include the CRC, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), Patients Out of Time, as well as individually named patients, one of whom is listed on the CRC petition but died in 2005.

“The federal government’s strategy has been delay, delay, delay,” said Joe Elford, Chief Counsel of ASA and lead counsel on the writ. “It is far past time for the government to answer our rescheduling petition, but unfortunately we’ve been forced to go to court in order to get resolution.” The writ of mandamus filed today accuses the government of unreasonable delay in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act. A previous cannabis (marijuana) rescheduling petition filed in 1972 went unanswered for 22 years before being denied.

The writ argues that cannabis is not a dangerous drug and that ample evidence of its therapeutic value exists based on scientific studies in the US and around the world. “Despite numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies establishing that marijuana is effective” in treating numerous medical conditions, the government “continues to deprive seriously ill persons of this needed, and often life-saving therapy by maintaining marijuana as a Schedule I substance.” The writ calls out the government for unlawfully failing to answer the petition despite an Inter-Agency Advisory issued by the Food and Drug Administration in 2006 and “almost five years after receiving a 41-page memorandum from HHS stating its scientific evaluation and recommendations.”

The two largest physician groups in the country — the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians — have both called on the federal government to review marijuana’s status as a Schedule I substance with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. The National Cancer Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health, added cannabis to its website earlier this year as a Complementary Alternative Medicine (CAM) and recognized that, “Cannabis has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years prior to its current status as an illegal substance.”

Medical marijuana has now been decriminalized in 16 states and the District of Columbia, and has an 80% approval rating among Americans according to several polls. In a 1988 ruling on a prior rescheduling petition, the DEA’s own Administrative Law Judge Francis Young recommended in favor of reclassification stating that, “Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.”

A formal rejection of the CRC petition would enable the group to challenge in court the government’s assertion that marijuana has no medical value. “Adhering to outdated public policy that ignores science has created a war zone for doctors and their patients who are seeking use cannabis therapeutics,” said Steph Sherer, Executive Director of ASA and a plaintiff in the writ. Jon Gettman, who filed the rescheduling petition on behalf of the CRC added that, “The Obama Administration’s refusal to act on this petition is an irresponsible stalling tactic.”

A synthetic form of THC, the main chemical ingredient in the cannabis plant, is currently classified Schedule III for its use in a prescribed pill trademarked as Marinol®. The pill goes off-patent this year and companies vying to sell generic versions are petitioning the government to also reclassify the more economical, naturally-derived THC (from the plant) to Schedule III. The rescheduling process involves federal agencies such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse, HHS, and DEA. On average, it takes 6 months from HHS review to final action, whereas it’s been nearly 5 years since HHS issued its recommendation on the CRC petition, more than twice as long as any other rescheduling petition reviewed since 2002.

Honorable Judges of the United States Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia Circuit,

I am writing to you in the hopes that I may provide you with some insight as to our dilemma as it pertains to the recent DEA decision to keep cannabis as a Schedule I drug.

My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993. The following year the disease progressed to stage IV having metastasized to her lymph system. Since then she has endured a great number of treatments including high-dose chemotherapy.

Several years ago, the disease progressed to her bones. At that point she began a clinical trial that caused her to experience a number of side effects that included nausea, emesis, neuropathy and constant pain. After a year or so, the treatment caused too many permanent side effects to continue so she was removed from the trial.

In the fall of 2009 she was accepted into a phase I clinical trial that has proven to be quite miraculous and the disease can no longer be observed by CT scan. The trial has continued for over two years and she has had such a positive response to it that she continues on it today. Her response to the treatment has been so promising that they recently re-opened the trial to other women.

Her problem now is that she continues to experience a great deal of nausea and spontaneous emesis. She is currently taking Reglan as an anti- nausea drug to little, or no avail. She lost some thirty-two pounds last year and was told that she needed to maintain her weight in order to stay on the trial as there is no sense in continuing on with a treatment that will ultimately cause her to starve to death. None of the anti-emetic drugs are effective due to the time it takes for them to have an effect. All her healthcare professionals agree that cannabis is a viable option for her but since it is classified as having no medical efficacy by the DEA, she is unable to procure the possible life saving substance.

Over the past eighteen years she has participated in a number of clinical trials, not only for her own good but for the welfare of the women who follow behind her. Her story is one of great hope and inspiration to others as she is now in a class of her own. The majority of women who have stage IV, metastatic Her2neu breast cancer do not live longer than eight years.

It would be a shame for her to lose her battle due to a lack of understanding by the DEA. It seems to me that the DEA would not be the proper authority to make decisions of this type when they would benefit fiscally from denying the re-scheduling of the drug all the while ignoring the 1988 ruling of its own Administrative Law Judge Francis Young, who found, “…Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.”

http://www.ccguide.org/young88.php
The National Cancer Institute has acknowledged the potential for helping people such as my wife: “Marijuana cigarettes have been used to treat chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and research has shown that THC is more quickly absorbed from marijuana smoke than from an oral preparation. However, any anti-emetic effects of smoking marijuana may not be consistent because of varying potency, depending on the source of the marijuana contained in the cigarette.”http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Support/marijuana
If controlled, the drug could be available through a source, similar to the tobacco industry, where the potency would be assured and accessibility would be restricted through prescription by her physician.
I appeal to your sense of reason and ask that you consider my wife’s situation, as well as that of thousands of others in her unenviable position, as you deliberate on the appeal before you by the Americans for Safe Access, et al.

There is NO ” We the People ” . The politicians want you to believe that their working for you but you have been cooerced & lied to .
Remember Florida’s Governor Scott & his drug testing scheme ? He is the owner/founder of Solantic & stands to generate huge sums of money by his drug testing scheme passed on to welfare reciepients . He owns Solantic & a chain of walk-in clinics in Florida. Before Scott was elected, one of his former employees, Dr. Randy Prokes, accused Solantic of using nurse practitioners to treat patients but telling Medicare they were treated by doctors, and of applying “inappropriate pressure on physicians to sell drugs that Solantic has on sale in their facilities.”

Solantic CEO Karen Bowling says Prokes was fired in 2009 for writing a painkiller prescription outside the clinic, which is prohibited by company policy. She casts him as a disgruntled former employee.

By yet another amazing coincidence, one of the donors to Scott’s inaugural committee, a fundraiser held in December after he was elected, is Pfizer (PFE), which gave $10,000 to the governor’s cause .

Scott told CNN anchor T.J. Holmes he isn’t sure how many welfare recipients are using drugs in Florida, but said “I know it’s not right for taxpayer money to be paying for someone’s drug addiction………but,apparently Governor Scott thinks it is OK to be using taxpayer money to buy his drugsat Solantic to fatten his pockets with or for legal pharmaceuticals which can easily get you hooked .

Signed! After watching the PBS series on alcohol prohibition I’m more convinced that the correct way to deal with cannabis is to legalize, regulate and actually control the production, distribution and sale of cannabis and industrial hemp.The health benefits speak for themselves. Hemp is natures best food.

“About 3,000 more signatures are needed by October 23 to meet the necessary threshold.”
I believe that we are already over 50,000 signatures as of 8pm tonight. Isn’t the current threshold only 5,000?
Within the first 17hours I think there were already over 12,000 signatures.

Please sign my petition to eliminate the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the “Drug Czar”. I need 150 signatures to qualify it to be a searchable petition. Eliminating the ONDCP would be like cutting the head off of the snake.

The legislation that congress used to create the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), also known as the Drug Czar’s office, requires that the ONDCP reject any attempts to reform laws for any substances on the List of Controlled Substances.

Because of this restriction, the ONDCP has shown time and again that it is willing to lie and distort facts in order to fulfill that mandate. This behavior by the ONDCP is un-American and immoral, and should not be allowed in a free and democratic society.

So much injustice, pain, suffering, unnecessary death, family disruption, loss of livelihood ect have occurred in the persecution of the god given cannabis plant. This government can’t find a rock big enough to hide under. God help those tards when the truth comes out. READ RICK SIMPSONS STORY FOLKS,spread the WORD—>FREE THE WEED.

SOME PEOPLE SMOKE MEDICINE —-GET OVER IT !
a while ago, i contracted a terrible stomach virus. the nausea, vomiting, and, aches, were all i could handle for several days. smoking marijuana helped the nausea, improved appetite, stopped the steady aches, and lifted my mood.

I am surpized that someone has not used the arguement they the did back in 1930 to repeal alcohol consunption.That the gouverment would recieve an indredible amount of taxes and it would also create thousands of jobs…growing, protection, tucking, sales, packageing……

To avoid the appearance of improper influence, the White House may decline to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or similar matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or agencies, federal courts, or state and local government in its response to a petition.

The White House reserves the right to change the time limits and signature thresholds and apply them to petitions created after the change has been published to this “Current thresholds” section:

AS OF OCTOBER 3, 2011:

To cross the first threshold and be searchable within WhiteHouse.gov, a petition must reach 150 signatures within 30 days.

To cross the second threshold and require a response, a petition must reach 25,000 signatures within 30 days.
…
.

I don’t know if this supercedes the 5,000 signature threshold as originally published. But the above statement should make it clear that even if we get 1,000,000 votes, the government can raise the threshold to 2 million, or flat out ignore us based on “improper influence”. It’s a sham, designed to inspire false hope. Revolution is right around the corner folks, and they are lining up on Wall Street as I speak.

I am disabled …53 years old: Medical Marijuana I am fanatical about meds
and side effects.I do my best to take care of my health! degenerating
discs in both my neck and back ! many ADHD problemsa significant amount of
stress and anxiety ! schizophrenia chronic pain and fatigue, and
depression all caused from years of working hard, and many auto accident
and MS on top. Medical Marijuana the benifits are amazing! The ease of
pain, and relaxed mood is unspeakable ! what up in SC ? I love USA
Marijuana is a beauiful thing !!! supposed “War on Drugs”. C’mon people!
Wake up! Legalize hemp and marijuana production in America. Numerous jobs
would be created and it would result in a billion dollar a year domestic
industry. Tax it as we tax tobacco and alcohol. How has this not been
done????? Impeach Obama! Thank you

for all the haters, the petition says to remove marijuana from schedule I, it does not say where to put marijuana. that would be up for discussion if the federal government would agree that it should not be in schedule I. please sign it and help medical marijuana patients.

Yeah, I confused it with other efforts to place marijuana on Schedule II. However, it is far safer than the materials on that list. I will sign, thanks.

I think there is a compelling argument for giving marijuana a different category from “drug”. First off, drugs are manufactured in factories, not on farms. They look like pills or liquids. Marijuana doesn’t even have these qualities. Even Hashish is just finely filtered trichomes, it doesn’t undergo any chemical processing; rather it’s mechanically processed, so much more like a food item than a drug.

The last thing that our government is abiding by is reason. It doesn’t matter that cannabis is one of the least toxic by definition, of any” drug’ that is used by human kind, because they could care less about the isolated human individual any more than they would care about stomping an ant with their foot and grinding it in with their shoe…from the perspective of a jet thats what we look like…human ant colonies with intricate designs and patterns at least from the sky. When you turn on the television and watch the” local news” you realise the depth of the deception,the random topics that are chosen to create fear that can be used to promote their next legislative agenda.i think the next” war on ‘ terrorism’ will be about human consumption of “organic” home grown” vegetables. hence the lysteria scare about cantaloupes(in order to inact S-510) It’s all done with a carefully calculated purpose,(call me crazy)but it’s getting old and very predictable..As far as cannabis is concerned, the baby boomer’s that where smoking dope in the 70s and 80s are all coming to age right now,and its going to be harder to suppress their desires(and their wisdom) than it was with the older generation during the Reagan years. NORML ..KEEP DOING WHAT YOUR DOING

So how this petition working for u. Not to good. Did u really think this will do any thing. Did u really believe they are going to debate cannabis. The white house raise the amount of u writing in for them to debate. That ok my stupid American pot head. How many of u vote . U don’t. U rather be smoking pot.And u spend your time on a t.v.sitcom show. Until we can find an organization who will put to gather huge march’s in each state. But that ok u will sit in front of your t.v and smoke pot.

I say call Obama’s bluff. Dispensary owners shold take to arms on this if need be.

[Editor’s note: Violence from medical cannabis dispensaries against the feds would be about the single dumbest course of action possible. Reformers will end Cannabis Prohibition without resorting to violence, as violence only begets violence…]

This is terrible, why can’t we get this thing running. I say legalize it and deal with it as we do alchohol and tobacco. If your worried about second hand smoke just vaporize then. I am diagnosed with Ptsd and the anti-depressants prescribed to me aren’t worth a damn, I have to sneak around with marijuana and urinalysis just to get the night terrors out of my head. I bet there are congressmen sitting around their 5 star resorts that the drug companies pay for so that the congressman wont bring up marijuana legalization is smoking some fire laughing at us folks that really need it cause all the other BS that the pharmaceutical companies throw at us dont work.

Hmn, schedule I is certainly an inapropriate position for cannabis, but so are schedules II and III. Do we really want to give control of cannabis to the pharmaceutical companies? I’ve worked in health care for 31 years and think not. Cannabis has been legal in CA since 1996 and most docs STILL haven’t bothered to educate themselves. Herbal healing just isn’t their thing. Their entire system is geared to synthesizing botanical components for very specific results. The western medical model just doesn’t know how to conceptualize herbal approaches to healing because it requires thinking of the body as a whole in relationship with its setting. There’s no room for that kind of thinking in our current health care system. In fact, every effort is made to squelch such thoughts.

In my opinion, the push to medicalize this magnificent herb, though understandable, is mistaken. Let the botanical healers at it. They’ll do a far better job of getting it into the hands of sick people than our current rendition of factory medicine.

On another note, I’ve tried to signup with We the People several times on two versions of Internet Explorer and can’t get in. Is anyone else having similar issues? I wrote the White House about it with the usual reply of silence. Any tips?

Fact: The Great Seal
The dexter talon holds not an olive branch, as is traditionally stated, but a cluster of cannabis leaves with buds visible.The marijuana symbolism on the great seal is confirmed by the use of the colors red and white in colored versions, and on the flag of the United States. Red and white were first used as official colors by the followers of Hassan i Sabbah founder of the Hashishim or The Assassins. By 1094 these elite troops, wearing the white tunics and red sashes characteristic of their sect, had made Hasan the most powerful warlord in the area now called the Middle East. They imported hemp from India and extracted a narcotic which is today named, hash for their sect. They used hash to reach “illumination.” More will be said about “illumination” when the reverse of the Great Seal is discussed. The thirteen horizontal red and white stripes have been associated with the drug trade, at least since they were used by the British East India Company on their ships carrying narcotics. The number thirteen is also the traditional code for marijuana. The code for marijuana is shown in the shield placed upon the eagle’s chest. The shield bears the thirteen stripes of the British East India Companies flag (later the flag of the United States) turned vertically.

Dreaming Dragon may be right, this is an herb not a drug. But it is medical doctors who are standing up for us, not Naturopaths. I’ve spent years studying herbal medicine, interning with and working for a Naturopathic Doctor and 99% of them are scared to speak about Cannabis. Because it is mainstream medical doctors behind it, it is a bright point of integrative medicine between herbal and mainstream. But this also points to why we are losing the debate. We’re still complicit in using the drug war terminology – letting drug warriors frame the debate. And we wonder why we’re losing! It has remained a fringe issue in the public’s mind with no collective will to change things. WE must change the terms of the debate to show how out of date the drug war really is. “Marijuana” is a propaganda term chosen to stimulate xenophobia in white America decades ago. Yet it has not been cleansed from our end of the debate. That framing needs to be done in reference to the botanical, herbal nature of this plant, linked with its many other benefits for food and building materials, etc. We should be reminding people that it is an essential health care option. It is also a state’s rights issue legally when there is no interstate commerce taking place and no violation of equal opportunity or civil rights.

I’m writing to urge your support for legislation that seeks to amend the
federal government’s classification of marijuana under the United States
Controlled Substances Act.

HR 2306, entitled the ‘Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011,’
prohibits the federal government from prosecuting adults who use or
possess personal use amounts of marijuana by removing the plant and its
primary psychoactive constituent, THC, from the five schedules of the
United States Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Under present law, all
varieties of the marijuana plant are defined as illicit Schedule I
controlled substances, defined as possessing ‘a high potential for abuse,’
and ‘no currently accepted medical use in treatment.’ This classification
is not supported by either existing science or public opinion.

HR 2306 mimics changes enacted by Congress to repeal the federal
prohibition of alcohol. Passage of this measure would remove the existing
conflict between federal law and the laws of those sixteen states that
already allow for the limited use of marijuana under a physicians’
supervision. It would also permit state governments that wish to fully
legalize and regulate the responsible use, possession, production, and
intrastate distribution of marijuana for all adults to be free to do so
without federal interference. In recent years, several states — including
California, Massachusetts, and Washington — have considered taking such
actions either legislatively or via the ballot initiative process, and it
is likely that several additional states will be considering this option
in 2012. The citizens and lawmakers of these states should be free to
explore these alternate policies — including medicalization,
decriminalization, and/or legalization — without running afoul of the
federal law.

Over the past 70+ years, the federal criminalization of marijuana has
failed to reduce the public’s demand or access to cannabis, and it has
imposed enormous fiscal and human costs upon the American people.
Further, this policy promotes disrespect for the law and reinforces ethnic
and generational divides between the public and law enforcement. Since
1970, police have arrested over 20 million American citizens for marijuana
offenses — nearly 90 percent of which were prosecuted for the personal
possession of marijuana, not marijuana trafficking or sale. Yet today
federal surveys indicate that the public, including America’s young
people, have greater access to marijuana — including stronger varieties of
marijuana — than ever before. It is time to stop ceding control of the
marijuana market to unregulated, criminal entrepreneurs and allow states
to enact common sense regulations that seek to govern the adult use of
marijuana in a fashion similar to alcohol.

After 70 years of failure it is time for an alternative approach. That is
why I’m urging your support for the HR 2306: ‘Ending Federal Marijuana
Prohibition Act of 2011.’

I am disabled …53 years old: Medical Marijuana I am fanatical about meds
and side effects.I do my best to take care of my health! degenerating
discs in both my neck and back ! many ADHD problemsa significant amount of
stress and anxiety ! schizophrenia chronic pain and fatigue, and
depression all caused from years of working hard, and many auto accident
and MS on top. Medical Marijuana the benifits are amazing! The ease of
pain, and relaxed mood is unspeakable ! what up in SC ? I love USA
Marijuana is a beauiful thing !!! supposed “War on Drugs”. C’mon people!
Wake up! Legalize hemp and marijuana production in America. Numerous jobs
would be created and it would result in a billion dollar a year domestic
industry. Tax it as we tax tobacco and alcohol. How has this not been
done????? Impeach Obama! Thank you

I am a cannabis user for 42 years and have had no ill effects from it. If someone is doing scientific study on the long term effects I would gladly join in its research.It is about time we the people stand up a make our voices heard. The federal gov. is a sham and we need to take it back from the big interest groups and big corp. and let them know we are fed up. get out and join one of the occupy protest in a city near you or get one started. Its time for a change in this country!

It’s time to tell everyone that the science has overtaken the superstition and what we have learned in just the past 10 years is that the cannabinoids in marijuana work in the body to protect us from a number of serious illnesses such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Read “Marijuana Gateway to Health” to learn how and why.

I used medical marijuana for chronic pain until placed on probation for an incident at a hospital which was caused by an OD of AMBIEN (an accepted drug). Now I am in pain constantly and may have to go back to using my cane and wrist braces. It is time for medical marijuana to be legalized for everyone!!!

think given that over a million people die in india every year due to tobacco itself and more than half of it due to alchohol, when the figure of deaths is set to rise atleast 5-7% every year due to more and more people getting addicted to tobacco. it will be smart to compare that with marijuana which has killed Zero people in the past 5000 years of its discovery, in time… it has 50,000 uses, ranging to medical to industrial and social benefits… how naive are we humans to ignore so many important things abt the plant for centuries, startles me… Cannabis has now discovered to not only prevent cancerous growth but also reverse or sometimes Cure them…not only this, it can give relief to upto 250 different diseases and prolong the life of a patient even during fatal diseases like epilepsy, tumour, alzeimer, cancer, and 18… other life threating fatal diseases which yet has no cure been found…Not only is it a wonder drug, it is an excellant source of protein both in kids and adults, as well as over all life expectancy and healthy body. I wonder what more has the plant to offer and this exactly should be the motto of all the scienctists to come together in india (like many other countries eg USA, EU, UK, Australia, etc) and start researching in this field of health care to help humanity, help india… Please I urge all of you to study the cannabis plant in greater detail before throwing unsubstantiated opinions about the plant, when the case should be abt discussing the facts… Best of all, it is completely non addictive unlike smoking cig, alcohol or any other drug.

[…] cultivating a structure for postive marijuana views. New Jersey is the mayors home state and he has legalized pot for medicinal purposes – has created identical claims about the Drug War’s excessive influence on the […]

marijuana, i have been doing alot of research on it and there is onaly one bad thing about it, and thats inhailation of smoke. but then of course all inhailation of smoke is bad no matter what. i researched all the myths and they all truned out fake like “weed kills brain cells” no it really doesnt they put a gasmask on a monkey for 5 min with 30 columban joints WITH NO OXYGEN INVOLVED IN THE MASK! so of coures its going to kill brain cells because theyre sufficateing. and yeah tabacco has been a killer for years and it kills at least 440,000 or better get killed because of it and as for alchohal 75,000 people die just in the U.S. more around the world. if you ask me we should ban cigs and alcohal and make pot legal. so come on the rest of the U.S. make your move and make weed legal like all the good states